Brazilian ballot

November 17, 1982

''Brazil will not be the same country after today,'' said one candidate during this week's massive turnout for his country's first nationwide election since 1965. ''This is the beginning of the end of the night that fell on us.''

The ''night'' has been the years of military control. Yet during these years Brazil has risen to eighth place in the world's economy. And it has moved toward civilian, constitutional rule, with 1985 the target for retiring the military from government.

As spelled out in correspondent James Nelson Goodsell's current dispatches on ''Brazil: emerging power,'' it is a saga of problems addressed and problems remaining. While the far-flung votes are being finally tallied, the rest of the world must welcome the initial impression - of a vast nation going to the polls enthusiastically, as well as compulsorily, on the road to democracy.